to work. a new study says exporting natural gas could grow the economy by $47 billion. sounds like a win-win. we will get former shell president john hofmeister's take on this. lori: was hurricanes and a warning on global warming? lesson thblasting the presidente has handled climate change, but are humans really to blame? a new survey says no. stocks a little bit higher. as coach before the new york stock exchange and check in with nicole watching apple after cher started to downgrade today. nicole: that is right. apple sold off, in the red and move higher. they have a buy rating, jefferies cut the price target on apple. the new price target is $800 from $900. they came down $100 but certainly plenty of upside

potential. right now apple at $5.29 and change. some nice room to grow. talking about the pressure on margins apple faces obviously intense competition but also the fact they will be launching a new iphone app coming along, all the thing these things we'rg about for next year and those to make it into their margins to alternately that is whether lord their price target. mcdonald's, same-store sales moved higher and beat the analyst expectations of 2.4%, that obviously outpaced october which is a losing month, first losing month in nine years for mcdonald's, but they're doing well for breakfast and in europe. lori: thank you as always. melissa: president obama had to try to seeking more support for the fiscal cliff plan. peter barnes is here with the latest.

>> just over an hour they will speak at a diesel engine plant persoextending tax cuts for fedl tax workers. keeping up the pressure on republicans to cave on taxes after the president and speaker john boehner met at the white house yesterday in a spokesperson said discussions with the white house are taking place, but we have no details to share about the substance of those conversations. they say perhaps the best strategy for them is to accept some higher tax rate the president is demanding, get that off the table and combat entitlement reform early next year the president can work for increasing the debt ceiling. republicans will have a little bit more leverage. speak a lot of people putting forward a theory, and i think it has merit for you give the president to 2% increass he is talking about, the rate increase on the top 2%, so there is a growing body. i'm beginning to believe that is the best route for us to take.

speak loudly the decimal be part of the agreement and frankly public and colleagues have learned to say the government will not pay its debts and hold off or something else is bad substance and bad politics. >> obama aides say the company, the engine company in detroit called detroit diesel will announce $100 billion investment in new production as part of the president's visit. melissa: peter barnes, thank you so much. president obama and speaker john boehner are talking, signs of progress or more of the same? it worked in the white house, we're pleased to be joined by some economic writer for the "wall street journal." let's start with these comments from a republican from tennessee known to be reasonable suggesting increase the tax rates on the wealthiest 2% to move on and talk about entitlements getting a little it is realistic to see the deal

that might alternately happen? >> hi, lori and melissa. do you think you wil you'll havw december 31? i think this thing will stretch out maybe a few hours before plunging off a cliff. lori: anybody who thinks it will be an easy newsday is mistaken. >> you and i talked about it a week or two ago the thing that is amazing is they are not getting closer, they're getting further apart. melissa: at me sitting there for their part? >> i think he is emboldened by the election returns obviously and emboldened by the polls showing public and higher tax rates on the rich that he has become much less willing to compromise and republican sources. the thing that really sticks in

with a lot of republicans, we want to give up the debt ceiling and want to extend that for five years. i can guarantee that it's not going to happen. i believe this is the only leverage they have in terms of getting the president to cut spending is to use the debt card, and i heard the little clip you played, but i don't believe the republican would do this. melissa: john boehner and the president has accomplished more than what they're letting on. >> i don't think they're publishing a whole heckuva lot. republicans may very well go along with that deal. they may just throw their hands up and say we can't negotiate anything. it will give the president what he wants o on the taxes and goig to 2013 was perhaps saying we gave your texas and now what do we do? that is becoming a bit of a

consensus. melissa: what is the president doing in detroit? in a city on the verge of bankruptcy, can't pay any of their bills. where the spenders ou outweigh e people. it will be dissolved into the county. he is out there drumming up support. what difference does it make, shouldn't they be sitting at a table trying to figure out what to do? >> the president still thinks the campaign is going on. to be truthful i think he really believes he can go to the people and get republicans to roll over and surrender. i don't think a negotiating tactic if you want a deal everybody can walk away from the table happy with i think the republicans i talk to them they say we dealt with tim geithner and the president, they want a surrender, not a deal.

there's a lot of ill will that come between these two parties that annoys republicans the president keeps going out on the campaign trail rather than doing what you suggested, striking a deal. lori: how will that make or break a situation making it better or worse, how does that play in and our deep spending cuts even a good thing with the economy so close to contraction? >> cutting government spending is always good for the economy, always. there is this mythology in washington and some of your guys in wall street it is bad for the economy. we keep focusing on the tax side of the equation but don't forget we have a spending site and the republicans a lot more say we don't like that option very much, this is the only way to get spending cuts.

$110 billion spending cuts that happen automatically if you don't reach a deal. lori: if we don't rein in spending by meaningful amount will get another debt downgrade to the sovereign debt and it could be all over, interest rates shoot up and you have real problems. >> especially if you look in the future, even on the low interest rates expected within eight years we will spend more in interest payments then national defense, social security and that they care. if the rates go up, you're talking about billions of dollars of additional expenditures. any progress and talk about the last few weeks. lori: thank you. and i will book you for new year's eve. melissa: breaking news, google gmail service having intermittent outages.

it is investigating the issue. gmail has 425 million gmail users worldwide. it is unclear how many have been affected. take a look at google shares up by $0.73 as the news is breaking. shibani joshi will bring us the latest coming up. lori: no federal government has ever find a business more money when it comes to breaking antitrust rules. melissa: cheap natural gas thanks to advances in shale drilling. to the export to make a profit? can i help you?

i heard you guys can ship ground for less than the ups ste. that's right. i've learned the only way to get a holiday deal is to camp out. you know we've been open all night. is this a trick to get my spot? [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. save on ground shipping at fedex office.

lori: time to make money with charles payne. this hour he is looking at the company he swears by scene on the road. it is a quintessential american success story that began with just one truck in arizona. melissa: did you know lori is a trucker on the weekends? lori: i said a truck driver on the weekends. charles: they have 14,442. i know you have seen one of them. that is down a lot, one of the

reasons i find the stock so compelling if they're going pretty well. it has become so efficient down here the way they operate the company. talk about the quintessential success story, when he was a kid he was outside playing in the dirt with a toy truck and said i love trucks, i will own 100 of them one day. there you go. the company is doing very well. all things considered. obviously it is a tough time for the country as a whole this is counterintuitive play, but i love what managemeet is going into mobile business, affect revenues per truck per week is up, i think they're doing everything they're supposed to do, like where theestock is priced. lori: are they trying to transport goods another way because of the economy? >> the same container is used

everywhere. you put it straight on the truck, that is huge for the entire industry. up 36th straight month in a row, that is huge. what they have done internally at the company is not one of these stocks that will pop tomorrow, but it will rebound before the oveeall economy rebounds. lori: thank you. charles: thank you, trucker. we have a bear in the air and you better hit the nail with two nickels. melissa: i'm going to just move right on. i'm worried about you, buddy. saudi arabia blaming the organized group for an attack aimed at disrupting production for the world's largest exporter of crude, more than 30,000 computers compromised in the

attack. suggesting that attack is eminent of a growing global cyber war. one in which countries including iran are improving their ability to target companies and governments. take a look at how it is trading right now, you can see this up $0.20. this is really the war of the future. lori: all industries, it is fascinating the industry building up defenses against cyber attack is taking off. we could do a segment on that. charles: i get to bring in john mcafee. melissa: nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange watching. nicole: we're taking a look, very carefully for a few reasons. they day they have had good business headlines for you. they plan to spin off the unit, security business.

it snakes mechanical and electric locks, steel doors. they will spin it off into a new company coming from pressure from one of the shareholders to unleash the more shareholder values, this is one of the ways they're doing it. known for heating and cooling systems. don't forget th they recently raised quarterly dividends. melissa: thank you so much. lori: what can i do about using the uncertainty. we'll be joined to talk about the policy. melissa: there you can see the dow is weaker against the euro and tte pound. we will be right back.

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>> 21 minutes past the hour, this is your fox news minute. egyptian government reportedly allowing his military progress civilians. the move is an attempt to

safeguard the constitutional referendum this saturday. the order would coordinate with police to protect vital institutions temporarily until the referendum results. north korea moving ahead with plans to launch a long-range rocket despite some trouble, the world's nations extend launch window after unknown glitch forced a delay. north korea's last attempted to launch rockets ended in failure. venezuela president flying to cuba for a third round of cancer treatment. this is a controversial leader did not make them the air. tests found some on the same area previously removed. now back to lori and melissa. melissa: thank you so much. a record-breaking year for the government with antitrust penalties. @andling out over a billion

dollars in criminal fines this year. rich edson has exclusive details. >> more than a billion dollars come from price fixing and all from data supplied exclusively to fox business by law firm confirmed by the justice department. the amount of the 2012th this fl year in the 102 year history of the sherman antitrust act. with a half billion dollars to auto parts companies and executives, the lcd panel maker for half a billion dollars. totaling $1.1 billion. former director of justices antitrust division said the ongoing investigation with the libor scandal setting up 2013 as another record-breaking year. >> i think 2013 stands to

outpace 2012. 2012 pales in comparison to the corporate fines that come down in 2013. >> these fines are present a higher penetration asian-based companies paying more than 95% of the 2012 penalties. back to you. melissa: rich edson, thank you so much. interesting stuff. lori: federal reserve kicking up a meeting tomorrow, but with so much uncertainty surrounded by the fiscal cliff, what more can chairman ben bernanke and company do to reassure the market. a senior economist joins us. we know ben bernanke has been. warning us for months. the fed is doing everything it possibly can to pointing the finger at washington that it has to do more. do you think the economy has already suffered for lack of a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff?

>> i think so. if we look at business investments declining in the third quarter, some as business nervousness. businesses are holding back on investment, near-term. lori: do agree the fittest and all they all they can in expecting an announcement of wanted it using three this week? the fed cannot solve this problem. >> they need to avoid most of the spending cuts and tax increases with economy likely to go under recession. the fed can help out somewhat but if we see those spending cuts and tax increases, we're likely to see it go back and ino recession. lori: purchasing the short-term,

we invest in the long-term help in the mortgage market. we have seen a real those haitian, is it fair to say it has helped those housing in the economy? >> absolutely. housing prices are start to increase. buying long-term treasuries, buy mortgage-backed securities to help push down mortgage rates, affordability is incredibly kind giving low mortgage rates and the big price declines we've seen since the housing bubble burst in the fed's efforts really help with housing turnaround. lori: can explain what we mean we talk about and expansion with qe3? >> thh federal reserve will announce they will basically put money on the balance sheet. they can create money electronically and they will go out and use it like to purchase long-term treasury, so treasuries of seven years, 10

years, 20 years helping push down longer-term interest rates, that makes it less expensive for businesses to borrow. make it less expensive for households to borrow metal support economic growth. lori: do you think it is a bad thing interest rates are being manipulated law right now? getting congress to get busy, do something. there's no concern, no fear, interest rates remain at historic lows. >> it is still 7.7%, so the fed is taking the view they will be time over the longer run to raise interest rates but what they're focusing right now is bringing down the employment rate to pick up job growth. that is their primary focus right now. so there will be time to normalize interest rates but not until the labor market is substantially better. melissa: thank you so much, always great to have you on our program. outrageous top executives at fannie mae and freddie mac rake

in big paydays even as taxpaye taxpayers, you and me, fork out $190 billion in bailout funds. melissa: amazing. former shell president john hofmeister joins us on whether or not the u.s. should export or our plentiful supply of natural gas. and heading out to break the vacancy micron technology's trading up almost 4%. we will be right back.

lori: stocks now as we do every 15.

let's head to the floor of the new york stock exchange and nicole petallides. "barron's" out with picks for 201 and how are the particular names doing? >> let's check them out. these are hot stocks to watch not only today but also through the next 52 weeks going into 2013. these are the top picks. apple being of course a name we focused on so often but you can see that is certainly in the top 10 there. some of the other names include blackrock, general dynamics, jpmorgan chase, viacom, western digital. those are some of the ones we're also taking a look at that are on the move. these are all the names baron picked going into 2013 as their top list. they say their favorite could produce gift teen% to 20% total returns including dividends for next year. they're talking about postively about marathon petroleum. these are names that featured in baron east throughout the year of 12 and that made

them more favorable for 2013. back to you. lori:. melissa: interesting. nicole petallides thanks so much. a report is out natural gas will boost the economy but what will domestics do to the cost. we have john hofmeister, former president of shell oil and he joins us to break down the pros and cons on this story. what do you think? we have an abundance of this resource because we've become the king of fracking but americans get very insecure about exporting energy. >> but the good news you started with, yes we have more natural gas than we even know, melissa. there is so much there. we have the technology, we have the people. we have the financial wherewithal to produce how much we're allowed to produce, that is the key word. how much are we allowed to produce. this is a government-run market now. it is not a free market. it's a government-run market. so where is the government on your question? melissa: yeah.

>> we don't know. melissa: we don't know. >> there has been no leadership. melissa: we don't know although that they are hostile to a certain extent. $47 billion is a lot of money obviously. that would create a quite a lot of jobs, right? they reilly turned down ss many jobs and revenue when the economy is hurting so much. >> and it is not just export% lng. my bottom line, yes, we should export lng if we have a market out there to serve but let's do even more with natural gas. let's make natural gas into transportation fuels, cng, compressed natural gas, liquified, natural gas both for trucking. methanol or even gasoline can be made from natural gas. so why don't we use natural gas and get off imported oil? only takes a little bit of political leadership. melissa: you're not talking about lng, is liquifying natural gas. that is what we would have to do if we want to export

natural gas to asia or europe which are two ripe markets. we could sell it for quite a profit. although you have to go through the cost of liquifying and you think we should keep it domestically instead and keep it for transportation? >> let's do both. i think we have enough to do both. that is my point. what we need is permission to keep drilling. we've seen no leadership out of the became administration on the future of drilling. they have anemic five-year plan that is kicking in two years late. no new areas being opened up by the way. it is just a rehash of existing areas. we've seen declines in drilling on federal lands. that doesn't help the situation. the reason we're seeing more production of oil and natural gas is because state permits on private lands driven by industry investment, has actually helped. and what it has done, melissa, it has unearthed how abundant this resource is. melissa: that's right. >> why do we continue to import so much oil when we

could use natural gas instead? melissa: one of the arguments against what you're saying if we start to use it for these other uses or we send it overseas then it competes with manufacturers domestically or energy producers benefiting from the glut of cheap natural gas. you introduce more competition it will raise a price to the consumer at home getting electricity or manufacturers. how do you respond to that real quick before we go? >> let's keep drilling. the more supply, the more abundance, lower the price on average. we can do it all, melissa, that is the whole point if the government would get out of the way and assist in the production of natural gas. manufacturers would have nothing to worry about because we have so much. melissa: all right. john hofmeister, thanks so much for coming on. >> thank you. melissa: my take is the is that what you got from that? lori: yes. melissa: there you go. lori: you should run the post office. you should run congress. melissa: no, no.

lori: really good making decisions, quickly. you don't waffle ever. tax payers have pork forked over nearly $190 billion to rescue fannie and freddie since 2008. a report for the federal finance agency shows where the money is going. employee salaries, look at that break down, 2,000 employees have titles of director or vice president and earn more than 200,000. that is 1/6 of the workforce. while these salaries are on par with similar private sector jobs in the financial sector, they are higher than wages received by most government workers. one more fun fact for you. the top 90 executives at fannie and freddie took home a combined $92 million. melissa: wow. lori: thaa doesn't outrage you? melissa: it does. lori: it speaks for itself. definitely a lot of imbalances in our government. melissa: there you go. 20 packages a second.

lori: 200. melissa: sorry, 200 packages a second, thank you. a blockbuster day for fedex, it would be a problem. as the shipping giant prepares for the holidays. lori: former vice president al garr chiding president obama for failing to make climate change a bigger priority. we'll take own that one. heat [ male announcer ] this is joe woods' first day of work. and his new boss told him twongs -- cook what you love, and save your money. joe doe't know it yet, but he'll wk his way up from busser to waiter to cf before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and me from the great northwest. he'll start investing early, he'll find some good people to help guide him, nd he'll set money aside from his first day of work to hilast, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense.

from ameritrade. heat. >> i'm adam shapiro with your fox business brief. a new report says china will have the world's largest economy by 2030. the national intelligence council global trends report takes into account fax tores like globalization and environment. europe, japan and russia are expected to continue declining economically.

standard charter reached at 327 dal million settlement with u.s. regulators for hiding the identity of iranian customers involved in dollar clearing transactions. the nearly three-year-investigation discovered criminal activity dating back to 2001. boeing finalized a order for turkish airlines for 15, 777 extended range planes. the largest deal by value in turkish airline history.

melissa: so is global warming to blame for hurricane sandy, right? former vice president al gore thinks so and blames president obama for not doing enough to fix it. >> it is causing these extreme weather events. dirty energy causes dirty weather. and we have to come to our

senses and do something about it. i deeply respect our president. i'm grateful for the steps that he has taken but we can not have four more years of mentioning this occasionally and saying it's too bad that the congress can't act. melissa: but then, colorado state university researchers out today with a report that says hurricane sandy was not influenced by global warming and lou dobbs is here now to weigh in. >> so i tell you, what is all that with, he wasn't that animated at any point --. melissa: that was nicest part of the speech. i watched the whole thing. he got really agitated. he said our atmosphere is open sewer. yeah, i don't know. >> he ought to look at the colorado state survey which shows over two periods, one in which there was very little carbon dioxide, that is 1899 to 1955, period of 57 years. there were 216 named storms. during the same period,

which was from 1956 to now, period of 57 years. 185 named storms but increased, interestingly i think, fewer hurricanes, significantly fewer. 119 in the first period. 89 in the second, most recent period. if, dirty as he says, dirty weather, dirty energy, dirty weather, where is the dirty weather? the fact is, this is really bad science. he proselytizing to a group of people who are so utterly convinced of their own rectitud, sanctimonious sure fire understanding of the cost most, it must be incredible feeling to be that sure of yourself without scientific reality or empirical basis for your view. i mean these people, they are, they are something else. lori: watching ice age movies with my children, all four. it reminds you that climate

change has been with us for hundreds of thousands of years. melissa: that's a great point. lori: fine, carbon emissions led to overall warming. they have proven that according to some research. but to blame the president for hurricane sandy that's a stretch and ridiculous. >> only blame him for the hug and kiss with governor christie. lori: can't get past that. >> the funny part if the earth existed for more than 6,000 years i think weewould probably seen climate change for millions of years as well. that is my idea of being a little bit of a joke. anyway, never mind. al gore is a cute fellow but, i mean, come on. you know he has a very select audience. then he blossoms this thing out. he is smarter than this. i don't know --. lori: nobel prize winner. melissa: he invented internet. >> by the way, nobel prize, so is paul krugman. lori: so is the president. >> so is president obama. what have we got? are we watching value of

that thing rise or watching it fall a little bit? lori: this is how i, in preparing for our segment today i'm thinking not a lot of information. blame congress. you could apply that to climate change, tax policy the middle east. it is kind of hilarious. it is easy to make this into a scandal and blow it out of proportion? >> well the fact that he is taking on the president over this issue is peculiar. you know, the president, exempted our airlines from their carbon tax in europe, which they were looking at as a signal that this administration was really going out there to tax the hell out of carbon. to his credit, he understands the politics, it is one of the most honest, candid statements made by the president to this point. that there isn't the political will for this kind of nonsense because there isn't the scientific foundation for this kind of nonsense. i'm sorry to all of our friends at sierra club, we love you, common, hug a tree. relax a little. lori: important distinction. that is my contribution. >> that's wonderful.

as do we. and i drive a hybrid. what more can you ask. lori: do you really? >> absolutely. melissa: all right. we see lou every day. lori: learned something new about you. melissa: at 7:00 and 10:00 p.m. eastern. tonight you have the president and ceo of citi mortgage. oh, look forward to that. >> me too. lori: hey it is quarter to. you know what we do every 15 minutes, we check the markets. nicole on the floor of the new york stock exchange. you're zeroing in on hewlett-packard which a dow loader. >> a leader. it is the number one performer right to your point, lori. we're seeing techs do very well. and hewlett-packard is the best performer in percentage terms on the dow jones industrial average right now. we saw it jump earlier in the day. you see that intraday chart that is two day chart that shows the big pop. that is all because the rumors started flying on twitter that billionaire investor carl icahn was stepping in and building a stake into this tech company. so the question is, this

beleaguered tech giant, right, that has the backing of carl icahn and what will happen soon? so what will happen? that is why everybody is jumping on board. that is the action. you're seeing it up 33 cents at the moment. don't forget hp sunk to 10-year lows not long ago. last month as they, they made an acquisition. remember the acquisition of autonomy they had to relook at and turned out those numbers weren't what they thought they were. at least that's what they said. autonomy battled that. anyhow, there you go, winning day. lori: thanks, nicole. shibani joshi on the very latest on the outages plaguing google. melissa: is the solar power honeymoon over? empty promises from the solar industry as california counties asking where are the jobs and revenue went? ♪ amecans are always ready to worhard for a better future.

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lori: breaking news just a little while ago. google's e-mail getting hit with outages. shibani joshi nolling the story. what is the latest? >> keep calm. mayan prophecy has been staved off a couple more weeks. gmail is back up and running according to the company's status site. shares of google taking a dip down as this news started to unfold. back up in the green, up a dollar and 10 cents right now. basically about two hours ago here is's what happened.

i started to see people unravel, come unhinged, totally freak out on facebook and twitter and other web sites as we were getting reports gmail was down for select users. google play and and other web sites were down. i got a statement an hour ago. here is what the company told me. we're experiencing issue with google services. for he everyone affected we apologize for any convenience you made may be experiencing. we'll post updates to the dashboard. the dashboard gone from ready to green indicating there were service disruptions. now everything seems to be looking good. that is the updated website there. people are really freaking out over this, lori and melissa because the know the service is subscribed to by 425 million people out there. mine was fine and other people's weren't okay. lori: do you buy the end of the world this mayan

forecast? melissa: when does it actually happen? lori: the 21st. melissa: i think more likely to happen on 12/12/12. lori: you have power to change it. melissa: things are heating up when it comes to solar, not a good way. many in california are wondering where is all the promised job creation??3 where is all the revenue? fox's william la jeunesse in los angeles with the latest. >> california utilities must get 20% of the their power from renewables. state and federal handouts made that happen. many environmental aists are happy for rate-payers and counties not seeing savings and jobs and revenues they expected the honeymoon for sunshine is over. >> there will be screw-ups. there will be bankruptcies. there will be indictments and there will be deaths but we're going to keep going. and nothing is going to stop me. >> critics be damned says governor jerry brown who backs solar energy regardless of cost or consequence.

>> we're adamantly oppose to it because we'll be people that live with it forever. >> riverside county is home to solar energy than anywhere in the u.s. after billions in federal subsidies, some call big solar a taxpayer rip off. >> on face they talk about huge jobs and long-term benefits to the county but we'll carry the burden of having these types of facilities for decades to come. >> there isn't a single energy source in the united states that isn't subsidized right now. this is leveling the playing field for solar. the truth the cost for solar power is going consistently down. >> costs are dropping but solar is sttll up to five times more expensive than conventional energy. those plants, typically pay millions in local property taxes. while solar pays next to nothing. when riverside tried to impose impact fee, big solar sued. >> the reason that we decided to litigate the riverside county tax is because it was an illegal tax. >> solar also has local environmentalists on fire for bulldozing desert

habitat and species. >> already we've seen thousands of acres of the dessert bladed. now undergoing utility-style construction. >> we're building the projects in the most environmentally sensitive way possible. >> the bottom line, melissa, the footprint of these things is very large and economy has not panned out. it is story you don't hear frequently about solar. back to you. melissa: thank you for bringing it to us then. lori: absolutely. today is expected to be the busiest shipping day in fedex history. melissa: wow. lori: the company expects to move 19 million shipments today. that is 200 packages a second. melissa: that's amazing. lori: the company is so swamped in fact, it hired 20,000 seasonal workers to help its normal workforce of 300,000. this holiday season looks to break records as well. fedex expects to ship 280 million packages between thanksgiving and christmas all-in, which would be 13% increase from last year. why the increase? of course a surge in online shopping.

fedex cites one survey forecasting on line sales will rise 17%. this weekend is expected to be the busiest online shopping week of the year. let's look at shareholders think. they're impressed. up 88 cents. melissa: the shopping is all me. i did not buy one thing in a store for the holidays. not one. not going to any store. every bit online. lori: as much time shopping online. melissa: but you're seated. you're not at work. at home. at home. i'm at my desk sitting there. lori: in your pajamas. good for you. what is coming up on "money". melissa: coming up tonight on "money", grover norquist, founder and president for americans for tax reform. he is going to discuss how he will not budge on his tax pledge even though some republicans seem to be budging. that is 5:00 p.m. eastern here on fox business. lori: bob corker. i can see in the fluffy slippers. melissa: what did bob corker have to do that? lori: he is the one that suggested that the republicans should accept

wealthy tax increases and move on to entitlements. one big money strategist says don't give up on different den stocks quite yet. halfer ford chief investment officer hank smith joins tracy and ashley next on. don't miss it

>> we have three weeks of gains and kicking off this week with up arrows. not too far the unchanged line. that seems to be the trend. we're moving higher, slowly but surely. let's take a look at names very key here. watch, first go across the board. the best of the bunch. tech is beaten down lately. now it is coming back. up one quarter of 1%. look at mcdonald's. out with same-store sales for the month of november. much better than, they beat the street for november.

october was a terrible month for mcdonald's globally. it was their first month of same store sales they saw a decline in nine years. everybody was eagerly awaiting numbers but only to find out think came in with a rise of 2.4% year-over-year. is, that was better than expected. they did well with the cheddar on i don't know bacon sandwich in the states. lower prices in europe doing well. high hopes for the mcrim coming up. ashley: anything with cheddar. tracy: and bacon. the lipitor burger. that's what they should call it. president obama speaking in detroit a day after facing meeting with house speaker john boehner. fiscal give was discussed. any progress made? who knows. peter barnes hopefully does. what did they say? speak the president is finishing up a tour of a diesel plant in detroit, they will then head to the podium.

extending the bush tax cuts are middle-class workers and let us bear for higher income workers. yesterday president and speaker john boehner met at the white house. a spokesperson says today discussions with the white house are taking place, but we have no detail to share about the substance of those conversations, but he did add republicans are waiting for spending cuts proposals from the president to get a deal on the fiscal cliff, but if you republicans now say that maybe the best strategy for them is to accept some higher tax rates the president is demanding, get that out of the way and then come back entitlement reform early next year before the president asked for an increase in the debt ceiling. republicans will have a little more leverage with that. >> there's a hardening on the republican side. we will not raise the debt ceiling. iwe will not let obama borrow ay more money for any american congress borrow any more money until we fix this country from becoming grease and that that rs

significant entitlement reform. >> the senator is not one of those supporting higher tax rates on wealthier families, he favors capping tax deductions on them to raise new revenue. speetwo peter barnes, does not so much we got very far. speeone if you want a new hockey season, you will be a little disappointed at least through the end. josh has hung his head in shame. the lockout will force cancellation of all games through december 30. it has been a long fall, no ground gained in the negotiations between owners and players. no hockey. tracy: do they do table tennis on tv? ashley: a big fan of ping-pong. the emphasis of texas is misguided and both parties should move the focus back to spending cuts. cato institute senior fellow

says cutting spending is not the whole answer to bringing this debt down, there's got to be a tax source, some other form of revenue, correct? >> tax hike being talked about is not even enough to cover it. you will not bill to tax our way out of this problem. the only way we will get serious if we do something to bring down the levels of spending we are talking about. right now no serious spending cuts are on the table. tracy: entitlement reform has been talked about for years now it has gone nowhere. we are up against a deadline. do you actually think we're going to be able to touch grandma's social security check at the end of the day? >> there will be some demand for entitlement reform if there is going to be any increase in taxes, otherwise we will continue to throw good money after bad. we can keep raising taxes in order to keep spending it.

the fact is even if the president gets everything it wants in terms of taxes increasing as part of this deal, his budget proposal will add another $6 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years. $6 trillion, that is not acceptable. ashley: at the end of the day to be kind of split the difference, and if we do, do you think condit appears republicans, some republicans, do you think there is some wiggle room in their? perhaps the top rate going from 36 to 37 rather than 39.6% the president is wanting? is there some room in there? >> that is the whole problem. we are focused on the tax question, what will the republicans give? they want to raise revenues, why aren't we talking about spending

cuts? the democrats have absolutely refused to negotiate with comes to spending. just over the weekend the number two democratic in the senate said any changes in medicare. the president said no to any changes in social security. unless we deal with the spending side of the equation, all this talk about raising taxes is just throwing good money after bad. tracy: so what do you do? you can argue that all we need are spending cuts, we don't have to raise taxes at all to save this problem but we are dealing with children in the playroom who don't want to compromise so what happens? do we go over the cliff to make sure nobody wakes up and comes to the middle? >> why should we refuse blame the republicans without attaching equal blame for the demmcrats who are refusing to compromise on the spending issue? everybody's focused on the pledge and grover norquist about taxes. more than half of house democrats signed a pledge saying they will not envision any

reform to the social security and medicare system. that is the pledge we should be looking at. ashley: we know where you stand on this one. thank you so much for joining us. just kind of taking it down the road, not a good situation for anyone. tracy: if republicans agree to tax increases now, we know how that goes. you don't get it. all right, stocks closely watching the fiscal cliff talks. coming up, chief investment officer will tell us what will happen if there is a deal where if there is no deal. ashley: michael bloomberg crack a joke the only people buying egos. he could soon become one of those. as it everyday at this time, take a look at how oil is trading moving slightly lower even though the suggestion demand from china is off, oil down slightly by $0.10, 85.83

per barrel.

tracy: it is time to make some money with charles payne. this hour he is looking at online networking site linked in. getting a little bounce, but has been on a tear. charles: this is a incredible stock. you put six flights out of business. i'm telling you right now. today part of the reason it is up, kind of odd, some sort of stock speculation mayor bloomberg may be interested in doing something, taking it over. even without that, this is a stock i like a lot. at least the third time this year my subscribers are in a stock. the latter earning report my two cents coby district by 100%, the stock finally looked like it would break out, and then facebook getting in the industry hurt the stock. sometimes it benefits, sometimes it hurts. a growing juggernaut, that is in

america. europe, middle eastern africa, asia pacific last quarter of 109%. ashley: a lot of people use it, no doubt about it. charles: i'm just afraid to commit to any more social networking stuff. tracy: it is pretty serious for professional people. more so even than facebook. charles: when the stock rumors come out and i scratch my head and i marvel at the assumption somehow facebook will get it and linkedin has an amazing lead, round since 2002. maybe somebody would want to take them over. a global jobs company i would make a bid for these guys immediately because this is the future. i don't know that anybody will be able to top that. it won't be cheap. technically i like it, break out of 110. i grappled early this morning at

that, we will stick with this, the fundamentals are just too good despite the wild ride. ashley: all right. thank you. as we do every 15 minutes, let's check the markets now. the dow drifting higher. nicole petallides on the floor of the nyse. nicole: let's take a look at a couple of key names. let's look first at apple. apple and name over $700 in the middle of september. the darling of wall street. it has been falling off. some think it is a great buying opportunity. what is going on with apple here today, you had one of the big guys cutting their numbers and their price target but still at $800. certainly still some upside potential. apple products and the fact their suppliers in asia not quite giving them the deal that they use to list the fact it cuts into their margins and new products last year. and we'll take a look at the

group on shares coming under some pressure here today. there was acquisition rumors downplayed, let's see how the stock is faring as we speak, it did rise more than 20% after bloomberg reported google is considering that offer for group on. back to you. ashley: two interesting stocks you have been following. thank you. tracy: 15 trading days left in 2012, isn't that crazy? so is the best way to address your portfolio for the future? chief investment officer hank smith shares his big-money strategy with us next. ashley: a look at the u.s. dollar moving right now. moving against the dollar, the euro moving higher still under 130. the uk pound moving higher. the dollar down against all these currencies. we will be right back.

>> 20 minutes past the hour, this is your fox news minutes. a navy seal dead after u.s. and nato operation could not a doctorate in eastern afghanistan. a member of the seal team six

elite unit known to take out usama bin laden. the ducks american was safely removed after being held by the taliban. egyptian government reportedly allow the military to arrest civilians. the move is an attempt to safeguard the constitutional referendum for saturday. the order was to protect violence temporarily until the referendum resulted. manufacturing has been hit hard because of u.s. sanctions. facing financial crisis in the last four years. dissuading the nation from continuing uranium enrichment. those are your headlines. back to ashley. ashley: thank you very much. holiday sales hitting record numbers, but even an upbeat shopping season won't be the saving grace for some retailers

so what does that mean for your portfolio? sandra smith has a look at the winners and losers in today's "the trade." portfolio. sandra: yes, for your portfolio look at the more beaten up retailers, ones that are shining in that. the stock is on the climate the past several weeks. a peril retailer, getting beaten up, the buyer coming in with a few days to go, just 11 on the stock, average price target or $27 per share. lot of analyst say there's a lot of room to go from where it is today. abercrombie little bit of concern around black friday and the high prices but it looks like they will come out on top. the stock up 1.7% but look at the most recent claim, a

one-month chart, really picking up some steam and just today upgraded. it recently raised its outlook and a lot of optimism heading into today. down 3.6%. this has been a huge winner in 2012, really gaining, up 66%. those who did not do so well, the buyers are stepping in at the end of the year. ashley: sandra, thank you very much. breaking news, before the head of the imf dominates ross khan has reached a settlement. claiming attacked her in may of last year. details we're told will remain confidential and by the way, not in the courtroom are we are.

>> collecting something. >> imagine the details are revealed. ashley: let's get back to the details, our next guest says it would go over the fiscal cliff at the end of the year, we are in for a big stock market. i like that. chief investment officer joins us now. thanks, hitting the market actually believes we will come to a deal. >> absolutely. you get this sense it doesn't really wants to sell off even with all this uncertainty with both sides going back and forth, are we talking, are we not talking. the market seems to be creeping higher, seems to be seen through what is traditional political rhetoric and grandstanding and recognizing a deal will be done. ashley: it is one thing to get a

deal, one other thing to get a bad one. even though we did not follow the cliff, we are stuck with a lot of bad decisions. >> even in a bad deal, tracy, one thing we can say is certainty will replace uncertainty. that is a big headwind for this economy. all of this uncertainty throughout the second half of this year, all of 2012 will be replaced with certainty and that should unleash pent-up demand when we see it in the construction, in capital spending, housing improving, certainty replacing uncertainty will be a big theme in 2013. tracy: that is all it is going to take? talking about spain, 2013 is setting itself up to be the year of uncertainty. i think it is the year of the snake in china. >> looks, europe has been with us for three years and at the

margin it continues to get a little bit better. with the new government in china, a case can be made for a pickup in growth a little bit more stimulus. so these things have been with us, but the pictures a little bit more clear than where it was. we think 13 can be a good year economically coming off of two sluggish years. ashleytracy: we said 16 tradings left, where she be putting my money in preparation for all this? >> first of all if we get a significant selloff, though sidelines in cash and a fixed income, that should come off the sidelines and into the equity market. any pullback that when g. chord analogy i made, any type of pullback the market should come bouncing back once the congressional ineptitude and is in the fiscal cliff gets resolved. as far as where it should go, we believe there is plenty of

opportunities in big dividend paying stocks who had yields that are better than bond this is an opportunity to every s&p 500 sector not just in your traditionally rich utilities and telecommunications, but everywhere. and we think it will continue to be an opportunity even with a new tax code in 2013. tracy: we will take it. thank you. ashley: guess what, coming up, china's largest purchase of the u.s. company ever. aig selling most of their leasing unit to the chinese investors. for a bargain. is china shopping for more deals in america? peter kaufman weighs in next. tracy: let's take a look at some of the winners and losers as we head out to break. s&p 500 winners. we will be right back.

@racy: it is 30 past the hour, check of the market as we do every 15 minutes. nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange with a friend. >> that is right. he and i were just chatting. the first thing i noticed on the dial, which is going nowhere fast, we are seeing some clear winners. that is tech and mcdonald's. >> not just yet. we cannot fully buy into the short-term rallies we are seeing right now.

there's not a lot of news out there today. no economic data. people are just grasping for certain things to trade off of today but the market has traded higher and will trend higher. fiscal cliff talks getting closer and closer to the deadline, both sides will realize they're running out of time i and the positive effect will come from that. nicole: you have said the trend remains to the upside. >> everybody will realize this is not going to help with the overall goal is going to be. we will get more information that will help the market. nicole: they're going to have to figure it out for all sponsored at the white house and he will figure it out. back to you. ashley: it wouldn't hurt. thank you very much. aig is selling 80% stake in the aircraft leasing business to a group of chinese financial firms

for just over $4 billion. making that deal, china's largest acquisition of u.s. companies. the sales will help aig paid $180 billion government bailout, but is it a good deal t for the u.s. taxpayers? joining us now, president of the group, peter kaufman, thank you for being here. this is a good deal for the taxpayers? >> there are three points of this whole issue. the transaction itself and the impact on aeg. the theme of china by north american exits. the leasing company is huge, the second-largest leasing company in the world, aircraft leasing company after ge. ashley: is attractive because of the emerging amount of travelers in asia? >> absolutely. they will be 40% of the aircraft market through 2026, 500

airplanes each giving them a big hole. it is a great deal for them, not a particularly robust evaluation for aig, but i don't think they care that much. they pay down most of what they owed the government. implied value, $5.3 billion is about half of the value of the stock. it is not such a bad deal even though it be counting book value of this deal is only the truly off 100% roughly, 50-65% and other transactions in leasing for more robust prices. the big issue to me, the theme yoyou're starting to see is chia is buying north american assets. they're not satisfied with that. a query for $15 billion canadian energy company.

they are buying other think of these subject to government approval systems, electric battery maker in bankruptcy funded partially by the u.s. government provide electric batteries electric car company. and bankruptcy is a backdoor way to the calling this stuff to me can do it through sales, you don't necessarily need government approval. ashley: is there a problem with government approval on some of these things? >> is that w it we would not lee chinese companies get into telecom. there are sensitivities. i am a free-market guy. we like the free market but there's got to be some sensitivities with what china wants to do. ashley: china doesn't always play by the rules, let's be honest. they're not the friendliest trading partners. relations have not always been

great. >> and they do own a lot of our debt. ashley: they're helping us out. >> free market be wary. ashley: are the other bargains that would be attractive to chinese investors? >> i think there are, i think there will be. a pretty attractive price for the leasing company. ashley: you think this is a deal getting back to aig makes sense for all concerned? >> i do. ashley: almost paid the bill to the taxpayers. thank you. tracy: now you know. the year of the snake. the newspaper business, it isn't what it used to be. will that stop michael bloomberg from buying one of his favorite papers? that story next. ashley: would have a 10 and 30-year treasuries, down a basis point, a asked for the 30-year treasury, unchanged, we will be right back.

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>> i am lori rothman with your fox business brief. stocks higher as investors continue to focus their attention on wassington and the ongoing fiscal cliff negotiations. the dow up 14 points. a settlement has been reached in a sexual assault lawsuit followed by new york hotel maid against former imf chief. the maid claims he attacked her in his room back in may of last year. no details with sediment will remain confident she'll. he did not appear in court today but was recommended by his attorney. hockey fans getting hit and checked. new york canceling games through december 30. they continue with a total of 526 regular-season games that

were scheduled for octobe october 11-december 30. that is the latest from the fox news network to be the power to prosper.

the ninth receiving the nobel peace prize. fostering peace on a continent ravaged by two devastating world wars. south africa archbishop, demanding that the $1.2 million prize money not be granted this year. the eu should not receive it because it relies on military force to ensure security. the deep economic crisis, europe, of course, suffering from high unemployment.

security measures, well, and financial payment has led to what we see here in athens. protests on the streets. teargas. tracy: clearly, that looked peaceful. ashley: it is insane. it makes a mockery of it. tracy: you, you, our person of the year. ashley: we need to get our applications and. tracy: oil prices tumbling again. jeff flock in the pits of this cme with the very latest. jeff: coffer of about 1% today. positive news out of china. coffee is down. way down.

the number of coffee beans is up. that means prices are down. scott shelby trades a lot. >> not really. deflation may be coming on board and set of inflation. it is something japan has been stuck on for years. jeff: the big markets are not moving. >> when the government tells you lower longer, we may not all put our purchases off for next year. our economy still is not doing very well. we have the inflationary rather than inflationary. jeff: scott will walk slowly, by the way, he fell down the stairs and he is concerned about the economy falling down the stairs. >> even if there is a deal,

ultimately, that will not get jobs going. we are growing a little bit. central bankers cannot stand deflation. they have been fighting inflation for years. jeff: i will leave you with the price of gold. you think gold is done. >> it will be cheaper next year. it will start to get people to sit on their hands rather than them out there. the only thing we can do to get them out there is raised interest rates. jeff: that is an interesting one. his ankle is all swelled up speed and thank him for standing there and talking to us, jeff flock. we will see you soon. ashley: he is a trooper. mayor bloomberg tried to snatch up one of his favorite

newspapers. dennis kneale on this story. dennis: it seems like the only media company left with the money to buy up rivals. maybe they are looking at buying that. the "new york times" this morning reporting that mayor bloomberg himself closely eyeing the paper out of london and owned by pearson. it will giie them ownership of a 50% of the economist. the ft itself, more pride than profit. down 30% in four years. that circulation overall up 10%. the paper itself and the accounts together run a profit of $100 million a year. the group could be $4.6 billion. that would evaluate it twice the price of here in the u.s. the owner, a sale would let the

ceo put a new stamp on the company. mayor bloomberg's third and final term in very soonn bloomberg himself was among the first to report last month that the ft may go off on the blog. one of the reasons the report may be a target is because the bloomberg site itself has no story on the matter today. ashley: that is interesting. the report says that yes he loves the paper. maybe linkedin would make more sense because it is digital and that is where we are right now. dennis: they can call it social media, but this animaa has nothing to do with social media at all. tracy: they know that newspapers are a dying breed.

now somebody wants to buy something that in theory is dying. [talking over each other] dennis: you know, he has journalists as a loss leader. tracy: yes. dennis: dennis, thank you very much. dennis: thank you very much speed that we have become dinosaurs, dennis. let's head down to the floor of the new york stock exchange. nicole: the markets going nowhere fast. trying to decide about the fiscal cliff. they will at some point come to an agreement. let's take a look at some travel sites. priceline got a downgrade today. that is on concerns of their

competition with trip advisor and expedia. let's take a look. deutsche bank cut its recommendation on priceline. 710 from 800. from a hold to a buy. the margins will be pinched by the competition. when i was looking at the year today, priceline is the worst of the three. that is the latest. back to you. tracy: thank you, nicole. ashley: president obama speaking on the right to work controversy. the speech in detroit. she gives right to work is about politics. there is thh message from the president in michigan. tracy: loud anddclear. housing short sales job ahead of new year tactics changes.

one expert will tell us how it can impact the fragile recovery. ashley: first, a look at some of today's winners and losers. these stocks are doing well. cisco up about 2%. we will be right back. ♪

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ashley: the department of justice antitrust division breaking records this year.

rich edson has the exclusive details. rich: the most in the 122 year history. nearly 50% increase over 2011. this data provided exclusively to fox business. it was confirmed by the justice department. or then a half billion dollars to auto department and executives. those and several other small the antitrust division says the ongoing investigation into other auto department companies could set up 2013 as another record-breaking year. >> we have other wide range investigation out there like the libor investigation. i think 2013 stands to outpace 2012.

2012 pales in comparison to the corporate fines that come down in 2013. rich: these are the result of international investigations. the asian businesses account for 60%. 17% are for companies based in the americas. back to you. ashley: asia-pacific, no big surprise. tracy: figure of the the snake. [ laughter ] starting in february 2013. let's turn to housing. a tax break on so-called short sales expires at the end of the year. unless, of course, congress wakes up and extended. joining us now, john burns. people should understand this have now been around forever. the government basically said if you do a short sale, your loan is modified.

you do not have to pay tax on that. otherwise, it is considered ordinary income. do you think congress will let this go back to taxability? >> there is not a chance. it may go into january and february, but we are at least 18 months away from the irs pursuing that collection. tracy: why do you say that? >> i mean, we are pretty involved and what is going on in d.c. both sides of the aisle are saying the last thing we will do is pursue taxes on people that just went through foreclosure. tracy: what about the mortgage interest deduction? >> that is on the table. i think we will see a mortgage interest deduction. probably to a $500,000 limit. or they will cap, itemized deductions altogether and get higher income folks that way. tracy: yes. they will get them either way i

suppose. people are worried it may expire. it is really hard to get the short sale paperwork and on time. are you finding it is administratively difficult? >> the administration of a short sale has been a nightmare this whole time. it is ridiculous. the good news for people is it starts the clock ticking on when you can go get a mortgage again. it is three years to get an fha mortgage. we are seeing these buyers come back as homeowners. tracy: many people are still underwater on their homes. i do not think enough people understand. you actually want to get involved in a short sale. if only they could get the administrative part fixed. >> it is kind of a catch 22. right now all of these people are living for free. tracy: quickly, where does this housing market go over the course of the next couple months?

>> the housing market, if we do not end up with a recession when they cut expenses or raise revenue collection, right now, the demand supply ratio for housing is running at a level of two-one. affordability is so fantastic people do not even realize it. if prices went up 36%, we would be back at normal affordability. tracy: i hope you are right about that tax break. john burns, thank you for being with us. >> my pleasure. ashley: liz klayman will take us through the last hour of trading. "countdown to the closing bell" is next. ♪ [ male announcer ] this is thege of knowing what you're made of. why let erectile dysfunction get in your way? talk to your doctor about viagra. ask if yourheart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra

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